"Growing mammothly": V'Landys speaks on where 20th side could land

With the NRL gearing up to have 20 sides in the not-so-distant future, Peter V’Landys has spoken on where that side could be located.

2027 will see the NRL expand to 18 teams with the Perth Bears before going to 19 clubs the year after with the PNG Chiefs.

And following a record-breaking TV rights deal set to bring $5.3 billion across seven years from 2028, the competition is now looking at bringing in a 20th side by 2029.

As a result, discussions of where the 20th side could be based have heated up.

Currently, the favourite for the license has been a second NZ team based in Christchurch, making use of the brand-new One NZ Stadium, which hosted the Warriors in Round 16 in a sellout crowd.

Already, the chairman of that bid, Sir Graham Lowe, has declared that the side could be ready as soon as 2028 should they receive the NRL's go-ahead.

Speaking about the possibility of having a third expansion side in as many years, V'Landys, speaking prior to Origin III admitted he was taken aback by the growth of the game in New Zealand following his visit to Christchurch.

“As part of the media deal, there's an incentive there for us to have the 20th team in ’29,” V’Landys told SEN’s Kick Off.

“I went over to New Zealand and saw Christchurch. They've got a magnificent new stadium; I was surprised at the number of people that knew about rugby league over there.

“There's also other areas in New Zealand like Hamilton that's really growing mammothly that we could look at, it's not just Christchurch.”

The other potential option emerging to become the NRL’s 20th side has been adding a 5th team into Queensland.

A bid which would see a club placed in Brisbane’s western corridor (Ipswich area) has gathered momentum with former South Sydney and Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson having supported the bid to help prevent the growth of AFL in the region.

With the possibility of another NRL team in a traditional market like Queensland, V’Landys noted that a side in Queensland can help strengthen the support for the game.

“There's of course Queensland and Queensland is getting so much participation at the moment and registrations in clubs that we don't have sufficient fields to be able to play the games,” he continued.

“That's how popular it is in Queensland. So, we can't discount not having another team in Queensland, so we'll certainly look at that.

“We've got a bit of time but we need to make that decision pretty quickly because you want to give them as much lead time into 2029 as possible.”